Chicken Wanton Soup

Living in Taiwan is really hard to find Wanton Soup without pork, as I've mentioned in my previous Spicy Shrimp Wonton Dumpling. I made this dish today without any pork at all.

For the Stuffing:
2 breast fillet chicken, chopped
2 stalks spring onion, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
1 tablespoon water
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
wonton wrapper

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients well until sticky form. Put stuffing in the middle of wonton wrapper, foll the 4 corner sides together and press gently in the middle. Set aside.
For the Soup:
2 cups of water (or chicken broth if any)
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup milk
1 stalk green onion, sliced (optional)
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/2 small carrot, sliced
salt (or fish sauce) to taste
oil for sauteeing

Saute garlic and onion in saucepan until fragrance. Add vegetables and season with fish sauce (salt) to taste. Pour in water (broth) and allow to boil. Add wonton dumpling and boil again. Stir in milk and sprinkle ground pepper. Remove from heat. Garnish with green onions before serving.

Broad Beans in Butter

Are they Lima Beans? or Broad Beans? I'm not so sure!

Anyways, what I did here is just boil water first.

After cooked, blanch them in cold water, peel the skin.

Then saute in butter, season with salt and pepper.

Serve for appetizer, snack, or sidedish!

Fish with Hot Bean Sauce

When cooking carp, all I know is to fry or deep-fry and eat it that way! For a change, I added sauce like the one I tried in some Chinese Restaurant.

1 carp/tilapia
1 scallion, slightly chopped
1 ginger, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 red chili pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce or salt
1 tablespoon hot bean sauce
1 tablespoon sugar (I used brown)
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon cooking wine
water


Rinse carp, score diagonally on both sides. Marinate with salt for 10 minutes.
Fry the carp with 6 tablespoon oil until both sides become golden brown. Set aside.
Stir-fry garlic, ginger, scallion, and chili. Add seasoning and little water, then pour
cornstarch solution to thicken. Add pepper powder and spice oil (optional)
Serve in a platter, sprinkle with scallion on top.

Bitter Gourd and Beef

I used to buy white bitter gourd and it's not bitter at all. This time, I bought the green and I didn't marinate it with salt after slicing, it's really bitter!
1 big bitter gourd
100g beef, sliced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon water
1 small red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
sesame oil

Marinate the beef with soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and water for 10 minutes. Wash bitter gourd, cut and shred. Heat 2 tablespoon of oil, stir fry bitter gourd. Add light soy sauce, sprinkle with water, sugar, and salt (optional). Set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil, stir fry beef until cook, add bitter gourd. Keep stir fry, add red pepper, sprinkle water (if it's too thick) and sesame oil. Turn off the heat and serve with rice.

Fresh Bamboo Shoots Spring Roll

For the filling
500g bamboo shoots (ubod), cut into thin strips
200g shrimps, shelled, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup stock (water)
2 stalks spring onion, chopped
salt and pepper; oil for sauteing

For the sauce
1 cup broth (bamboo shoots broth)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar (or any)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cloves garlic, minced

For the wrapper
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 2 1/2 cup water


For the filling
Saute garlic and onion.
Add shrimps, stirring until done or shrimps turn pink.
Pour water. Cover pan and let it boil.
Add bamboo shoots. Stir and simmer for 3-5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper according to taste.
Transfer to a separate dish, allow to cool.
Drain excess broth and set aside.

For the Sauce
Combine broth, sugar, soy sauce, and salt.
Allow to boil.
To thicken, pour in cornstarch dissolved in water.
Add minced garlic.
Remove from heat and set aside.



For the wrapper
Combine the flour, starch, egg, salt, and water.
Mix well and strain the mixture.
Place Teflon pan over low heat,
pour a small amount mixture just enough to cover the pan.




let's make our Fresh Bamboo Shoot Spring Roll

Place a wrapper on a flat surface, add a spoonful of mixture.
Fold one side of the wrapper just to cover the mixture.


Then fold left and right sides, and roll forward to wrap the mixture.

Serve with sauce on top, sprinkle some onions and peanuts.

There are two ways how to eat spring roll: serve the sauce separately,
use hand to eat the spring roll and just dip it in a sauce.


By using fork, pour the sauce on top of the spring roll, cut and mix well.


Here in Taiwan, we have so much bamboo shoots available all year long. Mostly, Taiwanese add bamboo shoots to their soup, sauteed vegetables, boil and dip it in a mayonnaise, or make it into a fermented bamboo shoots In my hometown (Angeles City), we have this favorite restaurant (Perfect Loaf) offering fresh bamboo shoots lumpia and I never tired eating it. I always wonder how they make the wrapper, here it is my first try!
This recipe once again is adapted from Christie Lee's Pagkaing Pinoy  cookbook. Originally, it has pork added into the mixture. How to make wrapper is not included in the book, I found it a Chinese cookbook and just made a twist.

Fresh Bamboo Shoots Spring Rolls